@johnmashey
Semi-retired computer scientist, ancient UNIXer, "Big Data" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mashey Last 20 yrs: chasing anti-science disinfo, esp. on climate or tobacco, helping defend scientists. Supporter of UCSF, CSLDF, NCSE, CSI, member AAAS, AGU.
I’ve visited Canada ~30+ times, including Prince George twice, say:
1) Canada is more different than USA than most USA citizens think.
2) Canada is less different than most Canadians think (world scale).
3) Sometimes N-S lines would make mire sense: Toronto & NYC seem to think alike of Left Coast.
Sorry, can’t help you on those.
From general experience, organizations can make people miserable that they can’t fire, but I don’t know the specific rules … and it’s been 50+ years since I was a (junior) faculty member while doing PhD.
White House: the witness’s allegations are “completely baseless” and “backed by zero credible evidence.”
Fact: FBI found her credible enough to interview repeatedly, and she received a financial settlement from the Epstein estate.
the entire speech is worth listening to, but this stopped me in my tracks:
"We see science and expertise being denigrated, while ignorance and dishonesty, and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards.
Every single day we see that."
Eighteen Californians, ages 10 to 19, are asking an appeals court to OK their claims that the EPA discriminates against children by ignoring the long-term health benefits of climate regulations. @blancabegert.bsky.social
www.latimes.com/environment/...
CORRECTION: actually, the chunk of people who are doubtful disengaged, *or cautious* about climate change is roughly a third of the population!
That figure has dropped from 47% of the population to 36% in just the last ten years. Things can change on the grassroots despite ongoing state capture!
Decades of research by @yaleclimatecomm.bsky.social shows that there are at most one-tenth of Americans that are dismissive of climate change science or. There are roughly a third of folks who are doubtful or disengaged though. That's the difference between a supermajority for the issue or a wash.
a grievous self-inflicted wound that will take years to heal if at all
Why @jkbjournalist.bsky.social still doesn't have a Pulitzer bewilders me. I guess we'll find out
For twenty years I've heard the same reframe and for the same twenty years I've had a fairly popular ocean science blog that tracks how long readers spend on each page and the long wonky pieces have the best retention and are still read years later.
It’s almost like he’s hoping for it so that he can have an excuse to use “emergency powers”
And yeah, shutting down Indian Point was a mistake.
Extending lifetime of old reactors is largely a no-brainer. gwagner.com/cki-nuclear
Fight over climate law looms as New York energy costs soar
Broken record here: Energy costs soar because of lack of cheap renewables generation, not because of it.
And no, Iran doesn't help. The answer to fossil price spikes every time a leader blows a fuse? Get off fossil fuels.
4/ Note: I'm not affiliated with UCSF, except for being on an external advisory committee for decade+ & know many profs & postdocs ... who are generally *terrific* as is UCSF overall.
I recommend not over-generalizing from a one or a few problemmatical profs to entire universities (not just UCSF).
3/ One can argue whether or not any given tenure policy is good or not, but for sure, a professor should *not* lose tenure just because they go off to government service for a while... We should want that to be possible...
but I've visited many schools, most have tenured faculty they wished not.
2/ As usual at good universities, the procedure to fire a tenured professor is nontrivial.
regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan2...
So, it may well be true that most of the faculty and administration (and others, like me) would rather Prasad be gone, but not easy.
1/ Prasad was (Full) Professor before FDA, according to senate.ucsf.edu/FacultyHandb... p.12
"In the context of the academic appointment process at UCSF, tenure is automatically conferred by promotion from the Assistant to the Associate rank for all individuals in the Ladder Rank Professor series."
Is this a contractual obligation thing (like, he had tenure & the government job was just a short adjournment), or did they actually *decide* he was worth having back?
Hey, great news gang! Vinay Prasad is out at the FDA.
Again.
Let’s hope it sticks this time.
Join me, @standupforscience.bsky.social, @ucs.org and scientists around the country in supporting the National Day of Action Rally to Stand Up for Science tomorrow in Washington DC and cities nationwide!
It's not a time to stay silent. #StandUpForScience
She's right. She just didn't finish the thought:
"...because Donald Trump is so co-opted by Russian kompromat that Putin can do whatever he wants anyway".
New: Democrats asked a federal court to block Trump's 250-ft arch.
Under law, Congress must approve certain monuments in DC.
“This is a straightforward issue of who’s in charge,” @SenAngusKing said.
They also mocked the "vanity" project.
“This is not Pyongyang,” @RepHuffman told me.
From Penn & Teller, B*llsh*t, Bottled Water
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2qy...
Data for 2025, released last week by the U.S. EIA, shows that Texas generated 58,634 gigawatt-hours from utility-scale solar, enough to pull ahead of California’s 53,713 gigawatt-hours. Summing utility-scale and small-scale solar, California remains ahead.
insideclimatenews.org/news/0503202...
“Trump calls on divided GOP to pass SAVE America Act ‘at the expense of everything else’” via @democracydocket.com
3/5/26 … 1/
“A foundational rule of computer security is to never create a ‘single point of failure,’ meaning a centralized system or node whose compromise wld cause widespread damage.” The Trump administration’s “SAVE” voter purge system—to which they want all 50 states to submit—violates this crucial rule. 1/
Page 2 of letter by Daniel Swain. It begins: constructive suggestions regarding how the already remarkable institutional efficiency and societal impact of NCAR could be further enhanced through increased (not decreased) federal support in the years to come. Please note: To ensure the highest level of technical rigor, this response focuses exclusively on the core atmospheric and natural hazard science topics within the author’s primary domain of expertise; for this reason, I have omitted a response to Topic 4 (Space Weather)." NCAR weather modeling and atmospheric observing capabilities a) Management and operations of weather-related observational platforms, modeling and science as a stand-alone activity. The proposed management of weather-related research as a stand-alone activity is a scientifically regressive path that ignores the fundamental physical reality of the Earth system. Modern atmospheric science has demonstrated (largely, it is worth noting, due to groundbreaking researc
Page 3 of letter by Daniel Swain. It begins: b) Management and operations of weather-related observational platforms, modeling and science as combined with other NSF investments/facilities. The highly specialized nature of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) infrastructure represents an extraordinary value proposition that cannot be replicated by combining it with more generalized NSF programs. The NWSC is not a generic high-performance computing (HPC) facility; it is a laboratory uniquely optimized for atmospheric science workflows, with a hardware and storage architecture specifically designed to handle the massive, high-bandwidth data demands of Earth system modeling. Furthermore, its model of providing an excellent, free-at-point-of-use technical support team ensures that the focus remains on the science rather than the overhead of systems administration. This centralized expertise allows individual researchers, smaller labs, and even entire universities—who would otherwi
Page 4 of letter by Daniel Swain. It begins: NCAR Mesa Lab (located in Boulder, Colorado) a/b) Ownership of the NSF NCAR Mesa Lab building for public and private use. Far more than just an office building, NSF NCAR Mesa Lab is an iconic and purpose-built facility designed specifically for the study of atmospheric science. Its position at the physical interface of the Rocky Mountain foothills and the Great Plains is a deliberate reflection of its mission, serving as a visible symbol—in an iconically American setting—of the federal government's enduring commitment to science in service of society. For many in the field, including myself, the Mesa Lab holds singular importance as a focal gathering point for the global atmospheric science community. My own early career exposure to weather and Earth system modeling, in fact, occurred within these walls, and I have long felt that the facility’s architecture and location inspire a necessary sense of awe regarding the atmosphere’s complexity a
Page 1 of letter by Daniel Swain. It begins: Dear Acting Director Stone and the NSF NCAR restructuring team: I am writing to provide a formal response to the Request for Information (RFI) regarding the proposed restructuring of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its critical weather science infrastructure contained within the January 23, 2026 Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) entitled “NSF Intent to Restructure Critical Weather Infrastructure.” I submit these comments in my professional capacity as an atmospheric research scientist within the University of California, where my research focuses on the physics and dynamics of atmospheric processes related to extreme weather events and their role in shifting natural hazard and disaster risk. My perspective is informed by a public-sector career dedicated to bridging the gap between fundamental atmospheric research and real-world application in an academic context, with a particular focus on understanding and mitigating
I just submitted my letter to NSF responding to its proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). I argue that doing so would be an astonishing and avoidable misstep, and that federal support for the institution should in fact be *increased.* [1/4]
~1970 I had a typewriter terminal+modem in my off-campus apartment, used to dial into mainframe at Penn State, very tare at time.
One time the line dropped, and a seemingly-stressed operator was on line saying “What’s happening?”
I told her it was OK, just talking to computer.
For years I worked a few miles from the Blue Cube, military satellite control center., prime target.. At least it would be quick.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onizuka...
